According to Wikipedia, the Mormon Reformation was a period of renewed emphasis on spirituality within the LDS Church. It took place in 1856 and 1857 under the direction of Church President Brigham Young. This period of history has an indirect relevance to the Luces, who lived through it.
“All pioneers who gathered to Utah Territory under the direction of Young, whether members of the LDS Church or sympathetic non-members, were welcome as long as they helped in efforts to build up Zion. The undeveloped area required labor for the cutting of timber, road development, the creation of farms and pastures for cattle and other livestock; and the construction of homes, meetinghouses, mills, businesses, and irrigation systems. Church members who were willing to physically strengthen the Mormon settlements were so valued that ‘problems they might have with smoking, drinking, profaning, Sabbath breaking, and even immoral living did not normally cost them their standing in the community and the Church.‘ Consequently, by the early 1850s, communities within the Mormon settlement region were prospering and secure but contained a segment whose personal practices were not within the exacting standards of the LDS Church.”
Knowing there was a reform movement in the late 1850s gives us an insight into the Luces. They were a rough bunch, particularly Jason Luce, who was related through his marriage to another rough bunch, the “Bad Seed Grahams”. The documentation we find about their outlawry is all in the period 1859 to 1864.
What strikes me here is that all these events came after the Mormon Reformation. I wonder whether we can confirm that any of the Luces were re-baptized during this period. If they were or were not, it would indicate something more about the way they saw themselves and their relationship to the Church.
In the meantime, perhaps we might think the Luces didn’t quite accommodate themselves to the newer ideas of personal holiness.
Jason Luce was probably connected with Bill Hickman and the Danites as early as 1844, when he was 13. He seems to have been one of the young boys who operated as a spy network in Nauvoo. Joseph Smith wrote in his journal in June 1844:
“Jason R. Luse reported that Ianthus Rolf said, while the press was burning that before three weeks the Mansion House [Joseph Smith’s residence] would be strung to the ground, and he would help to do it; and Tallman Rolf said the city would be strung to the ground within ten day. Moses Leonard also heard him, Joshua Miller being also present. Bryant, (merchant of Nauvoo) said before he would see such things, he would wade to his knees in blood. It is reported that runners have gone out in all directions to try to get up a mob; and the mobbers are selling their houses in Nauvoo and disposing of their property.“
The burning press referred to was that of the Nauvoo Expositor, which was destroyed by Mormons, igniting the civil unrest that led to Joseph Smith’s murder in December 1844.
Jason was the oldest of the Luce brothers, and probably the one who led them into the company of some hard-bitten characters. Twenty years after this report of him in Nauvoo, he was executed for murder in Utah, but not without having led a colorful life to that point.
Over the years the only cause of death I’ve ever seen for Stephen Luce is “apoplexy”. That is, he died of what we would now call a stroke. I’ve been to his grave in City Cemetery (Plot F12), seen his red sandstone headstone (now mostly sunken), and looked at the sexton’s index cards for the burial.
“Old guy dies of stroke.” I can’t think of anything less newsworthy.
Imagine my surprise this morning when I was googling around for background on Malatiah Luce, and came across this.
“Found Dead.—About five o’clock yesterday morning, Stephen Luce, over sixty years of age, and who resided in the Tenth Ward, was found dead in the water sect near the residence of Mr. David Candland, in the Ninth Ward. When discovered, Luce was lying on his back, his face, however, was not covered by water, showing that death had not ensued from drowning. A basket containing provisions, &c., was found a few feet from where he lay. It is supposed that he was either seized with some kind of a fit, from which he did not recover, or that he died from physical exhaustion, superinduced by heavy drinking. The remains were removed to the house of one of his relatives in the Eighth Ward, and were, we understand to be interred today.” (Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, Wed., May 1, 1872, page 9.)
The early Luces were a rough crowd. We already know that.
Malatiah Luce was an early Mormon convert. He died 6 February 1849, but where? Did he die in Nauvoo? Or in Salt Lake City? According to a family tradition recorded by several of Malatiah’s descendants, he died in Nauvoo.
Based on that information, Malatiah’s name appears on a memorial plaque in Nauvoo. And because he died in Nauvoo, it has been widely believed the Luces came to Utah in 1850. That is, they came after Malatiah died. This was the date given by Kate Carter in Heart Throbs of the West, an old Daughters of Utah Pioneers publication. It appears to be confirmed by the fact Ruth Luce appears on the 1850 (1851) Census in Great Salt Lake without Malatiah. Carter probably also used the Early Church History card file, which shows Malatiah’s wife Ruth Grant Luce and son Stephen Luce were re-baptized in Salt Lake in 1850. Because Malatiah is known to have died in 1849 it was assumed he died in Nauvoo.
But there are problems with this dating. Other sources say the Luces came in 1848. For example, William Hickman’s 2nd wife was Sarah Luce. In his book Brigham’s Destroying Angel (1872, 1904), Hickman wrote that his new wife’s father was going to Utah in 1848 and she went with him. Also, the obituary of Malatiah’s grandson Wilford Luce (1906) says he came to Utah in 1848.
Both Sarah and Wilford were children of Malatiah’s son Stephen. So, we’ve all been thinking maybe Stephen came in 1848, but Malatiah’s widow Ruth came in 1850. Other children came at other times, so they don’t factor in. John Luce was part of the Brigham Young Company in 1847. Ephraim Luce is known to have come in 1851.
Ruth Luce’s memorial plaque in Ogden, Utah.
A few years ago, Elder David Wood at the BYU Family History Center pointed out to me that Malatiah must have died in Salt Lake, not Nauvoo:
“Malatiah Luce made application with the Salt Lake City Recorder’s Office in 1848 for a lot of land right next to that of Stephen Luce (plat B, block 13, lots 7 & 8–lot 7 for Stephen, lot 8 for Malatiah.) Malatiah had to be in Salt Lake in order to make this filing and, given his age (76), it seems highly unlikely that he would return to Nauvoo to die the next year, especially since the Saints had been driven from Nauvoo in 1846.“
Now we know Malatiah died in Salt Lake in 1849. That means he was probably buried at the Old Fort, near what is now Pioneer Park. Unless he was buried on his own lot, and his remains haven’t yet been discovered.
He would not have been buried at City Cemetery. The first steps to organizing City Cemetery were only taken two weeks after Malatiah died: “Feb. 17, 1849…. The Council met in Phelp’s schoolroom at 10:30 a.m…. Daniel H. Wells, Joseph Heywood and George B. Wallace were appointed a committee to select a suitable place for a burying ground” (Journal History of the Church, 1849).
The Old Fort graveyard was re-discovered in 1986. The remains that could be recovered were moved to the Pioneer Cemetery at This Is The Place Heritage Park, 32 bodies in all. Malatiah is probably among among them, although we have no direct evidence. There are rumors the contractor who uncovered the graveyard destroyed some of the graves in an attempt to avoid being required to stop work.
I plan to do more work on this topic in the future. The family traditions that say Malatiah died in Nauvoo are, I believe, available at FamilySearch.org. Then too, I see an interesting question waiting to be explored — if Malatiah Luce was really in Salt Lake in 1848, why was his wife Ruth also granted a lot? [The answer turned out to be No. See the answer here.]
Malatiah Luce, at Pioneer Overland Travel, visited Oct. 1, 2019.
Ruth Luce, United States Census, 1850, at FamilySearch.org, visited Oct. 1, 2019.
Wilford Luce (death notice), Improvement Era, Volume IX(Sept. 1906), No. 11, 909. “In Salt Lake City, 30th, Wilford W. Luce, born Fox Island, November 7, 1837, came to Utah in 1848”
